Perigee Bookmarks is run by the editors of Perigee, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). Like our books, every post offers useful, useless, curious, or creative insights on everyday life.
Wreck This App
The endlessly fun and creative app based on Wreck This Journal.
Reporting on the truth about our fellow creatures is a lonely job. Despite my best efforts to expose their bad habits and character flaws, they still seem to get nothing but good press. One day, yet another book about a puppy hits the best-seller list. The next, another cute animal photo goes viral. And last week, we had a story by the Associated Press about gift-buying plans for the holiday season.
The article contained the results of a poll revealing that pet owners have budgeted an average of $46 for gifts for their pets—more than the average $41 they reported spending last year. Yes, unemployment is at nine percent and governments everywhere are cutting basic services, but if you’re a dog or a cat, don’t worry. The odds are good that you’ll find even more in your Christmas stocking this year than last.
I admit that I’m as guilty of this sort of thing as anyone. My cats get hairball-medicine treats that cost as much per pound as Kobe beef. My pugs dine on kibble made of locally sourced free-range chicken and wild-caught fish, and go on vacation with me to nice hotels. They certainly do get Christmas presents, and homemade birthday cakes, too.
What have our pets done to deserve this kind of treatment? Sure, they’re cute and cuddly. But did you know that over 86,000 Americans end up in the emergency room each year because a pet caused them to fall? Or that pets start about a thousand house fires a year?
And you may believe that you’re doing all these nice things for your sweet furbabies of your own free will when, in fact, these creatures are manipulating us at a completely unconscious level. Those puppy-dog eyes trigger the same neurotransmitter involved in pair-bonding with your mate and maternal behavior toward your offspring. And cats use a special combination meow-purr to demand service that’s acoustically similar to the cry of a human infant, a sound that we’ve evolved over millennia to respond to without fail.
So let’s get a grip on ourselves, people. Times are tough. Spending going UP on presents for our pets makes no sense, because even leaving aside whether they deserve it, they’d be just as happy with stuff that costs nothing. Let your pet’s worst qualities work in your favor for a change. Cats, for instance, may be beautiful, but they’re no geniuses: Their tiny brains can get hours of entertainment out of an empty box or paper bag. Just give them what the human presents came in and their holiday fun is all set, at no extra cost.
And what will make this the Christmas your dog will always remember? Just think about whatever you’re constantly yelling at him for, and go with it. Let him dive into the kitchen trash, just this once. It’s free, and there’s nothing money can buy that he would enjoy more.
As the 2012 election cycle heats up, it’s popular to interpret the current election in terms of the past. One of the themes of my book Slinging Mud is that there’s nothing new in politics, so I’m not surprised that the politically astute think they spy familiar territory. But exactly which territory is it? Several contradictory narratives are currently making the rounds.
Many compare the continuing economic slump with the Great Depression of the 1930s. Elections during that time were all about the economy. But will 2012 have more in common with 1932 or 1936? Voters in 1932 blamed incumbent Herbert Hoover for their monetary woes and went heavily for relatively unknown newcomer Franklin Roosevelt. On the other hand, although the Depression still dragged on in 1936, Americans decided to give FDR another four years to sort things out.
The elections of 1980 and 1996 are also invoked frequently. Again, these two stories had opposite endings. Which ending you predict for 2012 depends on which parallels you think are more significant. Some see a Jimmy Carter-like scenario, with a weak economy leading to a one-term presidency. Others remember that Bill Clinton won a second term easily, although Republicans had decisively captured the House only two years earlier, just as happened in 2010. Will the upcoming election see a backlash against incumbents, or did voters get that out of their system at the midterms, as they apparently did in 1994?
An election that I haven’t yet heard mentioned, but that may turn out to be relevant, is 1972. That year the Democrats engaged in a brutal, protracted fight for the nomination. They eventually chose a candidate who excited the base, but went on to lose in a landslide to a not especially popular incumbent.
With the election a year away, it may be a while before we know which story we’re in, much less its likely ending. Still, crystal-ball gazing into the electoral past has its uses. Disaffected voters now clamoring for a third party might want to take a look back at the 1912 election. That’s when ex-president Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moosers not only lost by a wide margin, but siphoned off enough votes from their former Republican colleagues to take them down too. In American political history, third-party stories have always had the same ending so far—and it isn’t happy.
Writing and illustrating are often solitary endeavors. Sometimes I catch myself not leaving the house for a few days at a time other than walking to a nearby market for one of those vegan noodle box things you can now find all over the city. I sit huddled over my laptop or paper with lo mein hanging out of my mouth and a glazed, expressionless look in my eyes and Dune playing in the background over and over. I mean, I assume my look is glazed and expressionless. Nobody is around to tell me either way.
When words and pictures leave my desk, however, things completely change. Writing and illustrating becomes a collaboration. Editors, marketing and sales people, designers, publicity reps, etc. Everyone has eyes on the work and input to give. There are emails and PDFs and CC'd conversations and quick changes and big decisions. You misspelled exercise (I always do). Is there maybe a better way to phrase the text on page 64? What do we think is the best red for the cover? There's no bleed on page 126. What do you think about this page order? What if this page said something like, "Who's licking Billy?"
I've worked with editors in comics and for other books, but The Monster Doodle Book took things to another level for me. The book started as a zine I gave out to trick-or-treaters in 2008. It was 32 pages long with no words in the interior. When it was acquired by Perigee, I originally figured it would be mostly an expansion of what I had already done. My editor and I starting corresponding by email about adding instructions here and there, and other ideas to make the book more dynamic. I talked with friends and solicited ideas ("How about a tank?", "LOBSTER CLAWS, dude!", etc. - those friends are included in the acknowledgments at the front of the book). It became much more than just something I created alone in my studio.
I made a promotional video where I raced around Manhattan and Brooklyn having friends draw pages in a copy of the book. I melted my Metrocard (slight exaggeration) and ate at some of my favorite places along the way. I saw friends that I hadn't seen in almost a year. Books. BOOKS. Am I right?
And since The Monster Doodle Book is a collaboration between me and readers, I wanted to come up with something that I could do at events that would involve attendees AND allow me to see doodling in action (and keep me from having to write and give long book talks). I created blowups of pages from the book and framed them in lightweight poster frames with plexiglass on top. Then I found some AMAZING dry erase markers called AusPens. They're refillable and don't dry out (in the pen or on boards) and wipe clean easily. I took the blowups and markers to my book release at WORD in Greenpoint, and later to a Story Time event for kids at Greenlight Books in Fort Greene (both in Brooklyn). I loved hearing adults defiantly say "No, I can't draw" and then catch them doodling half an hour later. And seeing a young child draw an EPIC PUKE for the first time was a highlight of my career.
Pictured: my friend Nate, one of the most talented artists I know. Not pictured: an adult who said they couldn't draw.
I was then offered a two-month book tie-in gallery show back in my hometown, Abilene, TX. I doubled my number of page blowups and hung the pieces with the markers attached by string. I had an opening and signing full of family, friends, and assorted Abileneans. It will hang until the fall, and it's a show that will change over time. During the opening, there was a phase where every piece had some sort of reference to a giant jelly donut. YES. If you went there now, it would be gone (unless that little girl returned). Evolving, shifting collaboration. Whoooooaaaaaaa.
I continue to do events for The Monster Doodle Book, but I'm also working on upcoming and hopefully-upcoming projects. I'm back at my desk in that noodles-hanging-from-my-mouth phase again, and I can't wait to get some new conversations going.
Kathie Lee Gifford's handshake was cold and clammy, and the "Today” show host knew it.
"It's hand sanitizer. I was petting a lemur!" she told us.
Of course. Of course you were. That is perhaps only the third weirdest thing that happened to us the day we discussed our book on NBC’s “Today” show.
Both of us are trained in journalism, so even when the national talk show booked us to discuss Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the 70s and 80s, we weren't sure it would actually happen. Things fall through all the time in the harried world of daily TV, and we didn't want to brag about it to our friends and family and then have to explain why we weren't on. It wasn't until our plane tickets from Minneapolis to New York were actually booked that we started to spread the word. Not everyone was impressed. Gael's mom asked "What's the Two Day Show?"
As the taping date approached, we worried about everything—from the colors of our outfits to defending against bedbugs in our Manhattan hotel room to whether it was possible to lose 30 pounds before stepping in front of cameras beaming our images to 5.5 million viewers. But our number one worry was how to get our cumbersome props, which included a 1972 Mystery Date board game and easily crushable retro Doritos, to the show. We were just planning on packing the largest suitcases we could find until the day before the trip. Standing in the parking lot on a 100-degree Midwestern day after just filming a local TV appearance, we received an email from the helpful "Today" producer who offered to let us FedEx two boxes of props to the studio overnight. First problem solved!
One prop that wasn't possible to ship was the very item in our title—frozen pudding pops. The prepackaged ones aren't easy to come by, so at the last minute, we sent the show a recipe and some plastic ice pop molds from Target.
And just to cover all our bases, we kept a few of the smaller props out of the shipment, figuring if FedEx failed us and lost both boxes, we'd still have a few things to discuss with Kathie Lee and her partner, Hoda Kotb.
We flew in on a Wednesday, and there was little time for exploring the city or a Broadway show—we were taping on Thursday for a show to air Friday. (In the summer, Kathie Lee and Hoda pretape their Friday shows so they can enjoy longer weekends.) Fortunately, each of us had a good friend in the city so we met for a group dinner and discussed the absolute weirdness that was about to occur.
Of course, there was some last-minute monkey business. Turned out we'd forgotten to pack one of the toys we'd promised, so on Thursday morning, Brian was the first customer at the Times Square Toys R Us, dashing in just as the opened the doors, buying a Barrel of Monkeys (and some extra Pop Rocks—you can never have too many), and heading back to meet Gael at 30 Rock, where the “Today” show tapes.
Friendly faces helped ease our nerves. First we met up with some of Gael's colleagues from MSNBC.com, who took a photo of us standing in front of Brian Williams' NBC Nightly News desk. And then outside the "Today” show" studios we met our fabulous and friendly editor, Meg Leder, and charming publicist, Jennifer Bernard, for the first time!
After being greeted by a page (sadly, not played by Jack McBrayer), the four of us were taken to the green room. On our way, we were serenaded by a group of teenagers singing Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” in a very Glee-like fashion. We would later meet them again in hair and makeup—yes, unlike the local TV shows we were used to, "Today" glammed us up professionally before sending us out on stage. (Gael noted that Kathie Lee's dressing room nametag read "Maestro Gifford.")
Those singing kids were there, too, and we finally figured out that they were Glee-like for a reason: they were from Oxygen network’s “Glee Project” reality show, one of whom would eventually win a recurring role on “Glee.”
Then, off to the studio. We stood backstage with crew members and also two women who had been plucked from the crowd and given Ambush Makeovers. They looked great—all the more so when their "before" photos were shown—and if you watch as one of them is brought on stage, you can sneak a peek of Brian hiding behind the door.
The props we'd so worried about had all arrived safely, and they were beautifully arranged across two wheeled tables. Most of it was stuck in place by invisible tape, so everything—even the little cars on the Game of Life board—stayed put. And at the last moment, someone pulled a crystal bowl of homemade pudding pops fresh from the freezer as a centerpiece.
And then, in swept the very friendly Hoda and Kathie Lee. They introduced themselves, made sure they could pronounce Gael’s often-tricky last name correctly, and then thanked Brian for having a relatively easier-to-pronounce one. “You’re trying to remember the ‘70s and ‘80s?” Kathie Lee deadpanned. “I’m trying to forget them.”
We joked around and chatted for a few seconds while they dealt with a camera issue (we didn’t break it, we swear), and then they launched into the segment. After we talked a bit about why we wrote the book, we led them from item to item, touching on everything from Connect Four to candy cigarettes to Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo. Hoda expressed her undying love for Quisp, so Kathie Lee scooped up a huge serving of it in a trowel-sized spoon, and jammed it into Hoda’s mouth—dry, no milk.
Then, it was over. The segment felt like it was about 30 seconds long, but we’d been talking for almost four minutes. Hoda and Kathie Lee thanked us, and we left—the Teamsters were going to pack up our props and ship them back to us. After meeting back up with Meg and Jen and hearing that we didn’t embarrass ourselves on national TV, we headed to the NBC Experience store, where Brian bought—what else?—a mug with Hoda and Kathie Lee on it.
In nearly 100-degree heat, we rushed back to the hotel, grabbed our things, and high-tailed it to the airport to catch our flight home. Due to stormy weather, we ended up sitting on the tarmac for five hours before we took off. As you’d probably expect, tensions and frustrations were running high on the plane. But two people were sitting there with goofy grins on their faces, recounting a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Can you guess who they might have been? Hint: Their hands smelled a bit like lemur.
Posted by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont
There’s a new Charlie’s Angels series coming this fall, and yet another Planet of the Apes movie due in August. A Dallas remake will feature the rivalry between Bobby and J.R.’s sons. Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is making a movie based on Sweet Valley High.
The pop culture of the 1970s and '80s is rising again, which should be no real surprise considering that the kids who grew up with it are now adults, making marketing and spending decisions. We’re two of those kids, and our book, Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?:The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s & '80s, celebrates the culture we grew up with, so long overshadowed by that of our older siblings, the Baby Boomers.
One of us, Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, grew up the only Generation Xer in a household with six Baby Boomer siblings and two G.I. parents. The other, Brian Bellmont, was one of four Gen Xer boys. We weren’t at Woodstock, but we sure liked him as a little yellow bird. We don’t remember the Moon Landing, but we remember Moon Boots.
While Baby Boomer nostalgia was draped all over our youth, our own childhood memories seemed to slip quietly away. Sure, Generation X itself had a brief flurry of attention in the early 1990s, kicked off by author Douglas Coupland, but that seems to be met only with negative backlash, ending in an entire generation being branded “slackers.” Who could blame Generation Xers for shunning that name, and further media attention?
But sometimes you can learn the most about a generation through the small things. Gael started her Weblog, Pop Culture Junk Mail, in 1999, sharing everything from bits about the royal family to musings on the comic strip “For Better or For Worse.” It was obvious from the beginning that her retro posts were those that found a most receptive audience. When she would write about the disappearance of the original taco flavor of Doritos chips, or reveal that Hostess Choco-Diles (think a chocolate-dipped Twinkie) could still be purchased online, comments and emails flooded in, even months after the original post. In the meantime, Brian was interviewing and writing about icons of our childhoods, from Adam “Batman” West to George “Mr. Sulu” Takei.
Kids of the ‘70s and ‘80s were out there, and they were wondering what the heck had become of their past. When we two college friends who always found a pop-culture kinship in each other decided to combine forces on a book project, remembering lost pop culture was a natural topic.
We soon found there were dozens of lively stories in the memories we were resurrecting. Jell-O Pudding Pops themselves had been hot during the 1980s, with uber-dad Bill Cosby hawking them in TV commercials. They vanished in the ‘90s, and made a surprising return in the early 2000s, but in a different shape. Jell-O had licensed the concept to Popsicle, and the once-flat Pops were now more rounded, and devoted fans claimed they didn’t taste the same, either. At least one regional dairy-product company, Kemps, still makes a version of the frozen treats, but they can be tough to track down.
Pudding Pops are far from the only childhood friend that was born again. Schoolhouse Rock released new videos in 2009. Doritos tried again with their (supposed) original Taco flavor in 2011. The owners of Benji are planning a new movie about the beloved pup.
Sure, pop culture items can be viewed as light and fluffy and disposable. But your memories aren’t. As we write in the book, it’s not the items themselves as much as what they meant to you at the time. Malibu Barbie may not be the best Barbie doll ever made, but if she’s the one you played with for hours on your cousin’s orange shag carpeting, laughing till your sides ached, then yes, to you she is the best Barbie ever made. The Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle may not be the highest-tech toy ever, but if you fondly remember winding it up and launching it across the room, over a checkerboard ramp and into your little brother’s diorama about the Civil War, then yeah: Best. Toy. Ever.
And sometimes, yes, there is a deeper sociological message in the items in “Pudding Pops.” Look at how television has changed over the last 30 years. Certainly a nation that only had five channels to watch had a more shared television experience than one with 500.
Gael likes to describe the process of writing our book as “redecorating the rooms of our childhood.” We can remember the big pieces, but it takes some hard focusing and sometimes research to remember exactly what book sat on that shelf (Free to Be ... You and Me) and what shows we eagerly awaited on Saturday mornings (Krofft Super Show). We hope this book will help readers do just that.
I’m the guy who cleans up the worst homes in the country. If you have eight-foot stacks of newspaper and 20 years of old soda bottles in your living room, chances are you know who I am. I’m Matt Paxton and my job is simple—to help hoarders clean up their homes and encourage them to take back their lives.
Hoarding is defined as a mental disorder characterized by a compulsive need to acquire substantial amounts of stuff. This may not sound bad, but if I mention the six feet of “recycled” adult diapers, 200 cats, or the six-foot rat’s nest that I’ve seen, it will give you an inkling of what true hoarding means.
While the homes I clean for the A&E show, “Hoarders,” are extreme—that’s why they appear on television—most hoarding is a mental issue; it’s never about the stuff. There is always a reason people hoard. I just have to dig deep enough to figure out why.
I’ve had to deal with some pretty high-level hoarders, but the real challenge comes when I’m working with average people who are not obviously pathological hoarders. It’s relatively easy to identify someone with 10,000 cookie cutters as a hoarder—and figure out how to help her cope. But a college professor who has several thousand books (plus a few years’ worth of professional periodicals) in a small office is another situation altogether.
I know I risk a good stoning by bringing up book hoarding on my publisher’s blog, but let’s face it, a lot of us have a crap load of books. Do we really need them all? I assume that most people in the business of books (and most book lovers for that matter) consider their collection to be socially acceptable—and even a status symbol of sorts. But it is a fine line between being a collector and a hoarder.
Many of the people with whom I work defend their right to hold on to their personal items: their memorabilia, the drawers full of jewelry, the 16 blenders, the 40 unopened boxes of things ordered from a TV shopping channel—and their books. My job is to help hoarders figure out why they keep all this stuff. In my opinion, collecting morphs into hoarding when a collection takes precedence over health, welfare, family, safety, or common sense. Is your office safe? Is the clutter impeding your work? Have your books become more important than your spouse, your partner, or your kids?
At the risk of alienating my publisher and his colleagues, “information” hoarding (books, newspapers, magazines, brochures, catalogs, etc) is an insidious thing. Even in this electronic age you can be an eHoarder—just do a quick scan of what is sitting in your computer now or count the number of times your mailbox is so full you can’t send or receive any new messages. While you won’t find the cameras from my show focused on your monitor, the pathology is very much the same whether you are hoarding physically or electronically. Unfortunately, our ever-expanding capacities to store information allow us to indulge in some very bad habits.
You may be looking around your own office (or book-filled home) and asking , “Am I a hoarder?”
I am not suggesting you give the heave-ho to rare first editions, but why hold on to some trashy old paperback thriller that you have no intention of ever reading or lending again? There are so many places that will welcome your donations. (And paperback books are recyclable, to boot!)
I’ve offered to buy coffee or beers for the most improved “book hoard,” but my publisher tells me I can’t run a “contest” on his blog at the risk of upsetting the lawyers. But if you are motivated to clean out your office or home library, I’d love to see your before and after pictures along with your comments. (Or, if you are or know a true hoarder who needs help, contact me at matt@cluttercleaner.biz and send along a photo.)
Author Tom Cutler demonstrates how to open a bottle of champagne using a sword (or, if you don't have one on hand, an ordinary kitchen knife). It's just one of many delightful things you'll learn in his book The Gentleman's Bedside Companion.
Find this video and more episodes of Get Creative on Penguin's Video & Radio Network.
Note: This is the first in a series of three posts sharing (with permission) noteworthy reader responses we've received. Read the second and third posts here and here.
Publishing a book requires a lot of breath-holding. Authors write and revise and angst about their projects, and editors acquire and develop and angst about their projects, and then together, we send them out in the world, breath baited, in the hopes that readers will (to misquote Sally Field) “like us—really, really like us.”
Every now and then, though, we are granted the gift of hearing from readers directly. Sometimes, they don’t like us… pointing out grammar errors we missed or facts that seem incorrect. Other times they do like us, commenting on an especially compelling chapter or idea. And sometimes what they write reminds us—editors and authors—that what we’re doing is valuable and has an importance beyond a paycheck or seeing our names in print. This week, I’m honored to share with you (with the permission of the writers), a few reader responses we’ve received. Maybe it will spur you on to take a few moments to write your favorite author about the book that changed your life…
I am a nineteen-year-old student. just over one month ago, my best friend in the world contacted me one evening because she was planning to commit suicide. since then, our lives have been more intertwined than ever before, and every single day is quite literally a struggle to survive.
about two weeks ago, I gave her Wreck This Journal. we had been talking about how every decision is a big decision in times of crisis, and she was in no mental state to make big decisions. she is, as she describes, an all-or-nothing person, and she takes herself and what she does (she is a musician and a writer) very seriously. she likes to have things planned and organized, and she hates wasting time, whether that be sitting in traffic or wasting her life, as she sees it.
I told her that she had to do something deliberately non-"productive" (a term I always use with quotations marks). the next afternoon I purchased Wreck This Journal and brought it to her. as someone who has never liked even to crease the pages of her books, I knew that it would be a good exercise for her. since then, she has slowly been choosing pages to complete, and she has named her journal Job.
last night I sat with her in her bedroom around 11 p.m. when she literally could not tell me any reason she wanted to live. I made her write instead of talking; I opened the journal to "Use this page for internal monologue." this morning I gave her a to-do list that included completing 3 more tasks in the journal.
it took her nineteen years to get a point where she wanted to end her life, and while one month is certainly not enough time to get away from that point, she is thankfully still here. and I want to express my deepest gratitude to you for your book, and the comfort that it has given the two of us in these dark times.
infinite thanks.
Check back tomorrow and Thursday when we will share more reader responses.
“Why do Congressmen say such mean things about each other? We’re not allowed to act like that in my school. My teacher helped us come up with rules about respecting each other and not calling each other names. Why don’t you all have rules like that?”
He was only ten years old, but his question made the Congressman squirm.
His name is Colynne. He and his mother were part of a group of private citizens who flew to Washington, D.C. with me to meet with several members of Congress.
How did a group of business people, parents, and kids wind up sitting down with members of Congress?
It started with the 2004 election.
It was Bush versus Kerry and, like so many of our elections, it was extremely polarizing. At the time I was part of two groups, one very conservative and one very liberal.
Because both groups considered me a like-minded peer, they spoke freely about the other side. I got to hear their unfiltered assessment of “those people” who don’t share our values and who don’t care about our country the way we do. Both sides were equally self-righteous and judgmental.
The “I’m right so you must be wrong” mentality had become our default. I came to realize that this wasn’t a politics problem; it was a people problem.
I knew there had to be a better way.
So I spent the next five years researching the world’s greatest problem solvers, people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. I dissected conflict after conflict to identify which behaviors enabled people to solve their problems and which behaviors kept them stuck.
I got the idea from watching politics. But I didn’t write it for members of Congress, I wrote it for everyday people to help them become more successful at work and in life.
But as I did workshops for businesses, politics kept coming up.
That’s where Colynne come in. His mother is client of mine. She runs a major sales organization. After I did a program for her team, she took a copy of the book home, where her son read it.
Flash forward a few weeks, and Colynne is asking his mother if he can go to Washington to give a copy of The Triangle of Truth to his Congressman because “I think he could really use it.”
From that point forward events seem to take on a life of their own:
Perigee publisher John Duff agrees to donate copies of The Triangle of Truth.
Several newspapers run stories about it and private citizens—Republicans and Democrats—come forward offering to pay their own way to D.C. to hand deliver the books to every member of the House & Senate.
My father, a 75-year-old Navy veteran, says he’d like to come with us, lending an element of patriotism.
My Congressman—Rob Woodall—offers to host the group and provides his office as a staging area for the cases of books.
People start writing and calling their Congressmen and Senators.
The week before we leave, The Washington Post picks The Triangle of Truth as a top 5 book for leaders.
Our group is able to get appointments with members and their Chief’s of Staff.
That’s how Colynne and I, along with my Dad, my daughter, and an assorted group of citizens ended up meeting with members of Congress.
We had one goal: Get Congress to establish best practices for restoring civility. As a business consultant, I know that talk is cheap. But when you establish best practices, you’re forced to hold each other accountable.
During our trip last month, we met with more than 100 congressional officers. Colynne and the team made such an impression that the 16 Republican and Democratic Congressmen who represent Georgia have agreed to call a meeting of the Georgia Caucus to discuss the issue.
If a ten year old and a group of private citizens can get leaders from both sides of the aisle to come together to talk about civility, who knows what might happen next?
Are we done? No, we’re just getting started. If you want Congress to stop fighting and start solving problems, join the Facebook group.
Be sure to check out the pictures of Colynne with all the Congressmen. Trust me, you’ll see those faces again.
Lisa Earle McLeod is the President of McLeod & More, Inc. an international training and consulting firm and author of The Triangle of Truth: The Surprisingly Simple Secret To Resolving Conflicts Large and Small (Penguin 2010) www.triangleoftruth.com
Dr. Brandon Colby, a geneticist who runs a predictive medicine practice that focuses on prevention of disease through genetic technology and author of Outsmart Your Genes, is sponsoring a sweepstakes. Grand prize and second place winners will receive free genetic testing, including personal counseling on the results, from the doctor's practice. One third place prize—a copy of the book—will be given away every day until April 23.
The entry form and official rules can be found on Facebook.
